Chapter 12 · Class prep
A printable handout for teaching this chapter. For each verse with Personal Guidance, you'll see Prabhupāda's translation, the essence, two or three practical applications, and a discussion prompt. Press ⌘P / Ctrl P to print as a handout.
BG 12.1
Nārada Muni said: A student should practice completely controlling his senses. He should be submissive and should have an attitude of firm friendship for the spiritual master. With a great vow, the brahmacārī should live at the gurukula, only for the benefit of the guru.
Essence. A brahmacārī student should fully control his senses, be submissive, hold firm friendship with the guru, and live at the gurukula for the guru's benefit, not his own. Real student-hood is structural, not casual. Submission is not weakness; it is the condition of receiving.
BG 12.2
At both junctions of day and night, namely, in the early morning and in the evening, he should be fully absorbed in thoughts of the spiritual master, fire, the sun-god and Lord Viṣṇu and by chanting the Gāyatrī mantra he should worship them.
Essence. Twice daily — early morning and evening — fully absorb yourself in the guru, fire, sun, and Viṣṇu, chanting Gāyatrī. Spiritual life is calibrated to the day's natural rhythm. Sandhyā is not optional ornament; it is the spine of practice.
BG 12.3
Being called by the spiritual master, the student should study the Vedic mantras regularly. Every day, before beginning his studies and at the end of his studies, the disciple should respectfully offer obeisances unto the spiritual master.
Essence. When called by the guru, the student studies the Vedic mantras regularly; before and after, he offers obeisances. Study is bracketed by reverence. The bow opens the book; the bow closes it.
BG 12.4
Carrying pure kuśa grass in his hand, the brahmacārī should dress regularly with a belt of straw and with deerskin garments. He should wear matted hair, carry a rod and waterpot and be decorated with a sacred thread, as recommended in the śāstras.
Essence. The brahmacārī wears matted hair, deerskin, kuśa grass, straw belt, sacred thread; carries rod and waterpot. Outward simplicity protects inward focus. The dress code is not aesthetic but functional.
BG 12.5
The brahmacārī should go out morning and evening to collect alms, and he should offer all that he collects to the spiritual master. He should eat only if ordered to take food by the spiritual master; otherwise, if the spiritual master does not give this order, he may sometimes have to fast.
Essence. The brahmacārī begs alms morning and evening, offers everything to the guru, and eats only when ordered. The pattern is: collect, offer up, receive back. Refusing to keep what you collect is the deepest economic training.
BG 12.6
A brahmacārī should be quite well-behaved and gentle and should not eat or collect more than necessary. He must always be active and expert, fully believing in the instructions of the spiritual master and the śāstra. Fully controlling his senses, he should associate only as much as necessary with women or those controlled by women.
Essence. Well-behaved, gentle, not over-eating or over-collecting, active, expert, full faith in guru and śāstra, controlled senses, minimal association with women or men attached to women. Even necessary contact is brief and businesslike.
BG 12.7
A brahmacārī, or one who has not accepted the gṛhastha-āśrama [family life], must rigidly avoid talking with women or about women, for the senses are so powerful that they may agitate even the mind of a sannyāsī, a member of the renounced order of life.
Essence. Brahmacārī must rigidly avoid talking with or about women — the senses can agitate even a sannyāsī's mind. The basic principle of spiritual life is restraint of intersexual interaction. Underestimate this and fail.
BG 12.8
If the wife of the spiritual master is young, a young brahmacārī should not allow her to care for his hair, massage his body with oil, or bathe him with affection like a mother.
Essence. If the guru's wife is young, the brahmacārī should not allow her to oil his hair, massage him, or bathe him like a mother. Even legitimate motherly care has bounds. The relationship is real; the boundary is also real.
BG 12.9
Woman is compared to fire, and man is compared to a butter pot. Therefore a man should avoid associating even with his own daughter in a secluded place. Similarly, he should also avoid association with other women. One should associate with women only for important business and not otherwise.
Essence. Woman is fire; man is a butter pot — even with one's own daughter, a man avoids seclusion. Sense-control is not assumed but structurally protected. Don't rely on willpower where structure suffices.
BG 12.10
As long as a living entity is not completely self-realized — as long as he is not independent of the misconception of identifying with his body, which is nothing but a reflection of the original body and senses — he cannot be relieved of the conception of duality, which is epitomized by the duality between man and woman. Thus there is every chance that he will fall down because his intelligence is bewildered.
Essence. Until self-realized — independent of the body-mind — duality of man and woman persists. Bewildered intelligence means every chance of falling. Don't pretend to a non-dual realization the body still negates.
BG 12.11
All the rules and regulations apply equally to the householder and the sannyāsī, the member of the renounced order of life. The gṛhastha, however, is given permission by the spiritual master to indulge in sex during the period favorable for procreation.
Essence. Same rules of restraint apply to gṛhastha and sannyāsī alike — gṛhasthas are only permitted procreative sex with guru's sanction. Even married life is not unrestricted. Marriage is not a license to abandon discipline.
BG 12.12
Brahmacārīs or gṛhasthas who have taken the vow of celibacy as described above should not indulge in the following: applying powder or ointment to the eyes, massaging the head with oil, massaging the body with the hands, seeing a woman or painting a woman’s picture, eating meat, drinking wine, decorating the body with flower garlands, smearing scented ointment on the body, or decorating the body with ornaments. These they should give up.
Essence. Vow-takers should give up eye ointments, oil massages, hand-massages of the body, seeing or painting women, meat, wine, garlands, scented ointments, and ornaments. Sensual upkeep maintains sensual attachment. Drop the upkeep, drop the addiction.
BG 12.13-14
According to the rules and regulations mentioned above, one who is twice-born, namely a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya or vaiśya, should reside in the gurukula under the care of the spiritual master. There he should study and learn all the Vedic literatures along with their supplements and the Upaniṣads, according to his ability and power to study. If possible, the student or disciple should reward the spiritual master with the remuneration the spiritual master requests, and then, following the master’s order, the disciple should leave and accept one of the other āśramas, namely the gṛhastha-āśrama, vānaprastha-āśrama or sannyāsa-āśrama, as he desires.
Essence. The twice-born study Vedic literature in the gurukula per ability, reward the guru, then with permission move to gṛhastha, vānaprastha, or sannyāsa. Study, reward, transition — a clear progression. Skipping any step destabilizes the next.
BG 12.15
One should realize that in the fire, in the spiritual master, in one’s self and in all living entities — in all circumstances and conditions — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, has simultaneously entered and not entered. He is situated externally and internally as the full controller of everything.
Essence. Viṣṇu has simultaneously entered and not entered fire, guru, self, and all living entities. He is the controller external and internal. Recognize Him without confusing entry with identity. The presence-but-not-identity is the key.
BG 12.16
By practicing in this way, whether one be in the brahmacārī-āśrama, gṛhastha-āśrama, vānaprastha-āśrama or sannyāsa-āśrama, one must always realize the all-pervading presence of the Supreme Lord, for in this way it is possible to understand the Absolute Truth.
Essence. In any āśrama — brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsī — one must always realize the all-pervading presence of the Lord. This is brahma-jijñāsā, the real concern of human life. Without this inquiry, one is no better than a cow or ass.
BG 12.17
O King, I shall now describe the qualifications for a vānaprastha, one who has retired from family life. By rigidly following the rules and regulations for the vānaprastha, one can easily be elevated to the upper planetary system known as Maharloka.
Essence. Now the qualifications of a vānaprastha. By rigid observance, one can be elevated to Maharloka. The retired-from-family stage has its own discipline and its own reward. Retirement is not coasting; it is intensification.
BG 12.18
A person in vānaprastha life should not eat grains grown by tilling of the fields. He should also not eat grains that have grown without tilling of the field but are not fully ripe. Nor should a vānaprastha eat grains cooked in fire. Indeed, he should eat only fruit ripened by the sunshine.
Essence. A vānaprastha does not eat tilled grains, unripe wild grains, or grains cooked in fire — only sun-ripened fruit. The diet itself becomes austere. What you eat and how it is prepared shapes the stage you can sustain.
BG 12.19
A vānaprastha should prepare cakes to be offered in sacrifice from fruits and grains grown naturally in the forest. When he obtains some new grains, he should give up his old stock of grains.
Essence. Cakes from forest fruit and grain are prepared for sacrifice; when new grains come, the old are given up. Don't hoard; let new offerings replace old supplies. Sacrifice is renewed, never stored.
BG 12.20
A vānaprastha should prepare a thatched cottage or take shelter of a cave in a mountain only to keep the sacred fire, but he should personally practice enduring snowfall, wind, fire, rain and the shining of the sun.
Essence. A thatched hut or cave shelters the sacred fire only; the vānaprastha endures snow, wind, fire, rain, and sun on his own body. The body learns to take the weather; the fire learns shelter. Reverse the usual coddling.
BG 12.21
The vānaprastha should wear matted locks of hair on his head and let his body hair, nails and moustache grow. He should not cleanse his body of dirt. He should keep a waterpot, deerskin and rod, wear the bark of a tree as a covering, and use garments colored like fire.
Essence. Matted hair, ungroomed body, no removal of dirt, waterpot, deerskin, rod, bark covering, fire-colored cloth. Outward austerity makes inward absorption visible. The form signals the stage; do not adopt it casually.
BG 12.22
Being very thoughtful, a vānaprastha should remain in the forest for twelve years, eight years, four years, two years or at least one year. He should behave in such a way that he will not be disturbed or troubled by too much austerity.
Essence. Remain in the forest for twelve, eight, four, two, or at least one year — but do not push so hard that austerity becomes affliction. Tolerable austerity is what advances; intolerable austerity breaks. Calibrate.
BG 12.23
When because of disease or old age one is unable to perform his prescribed duties for advancement in spiritual consciousness or study of the Vedas, he should practice fasting, not taking any food.
Essence. When disease or old age makes prescribed duties impossible, take to fasting and stop eating. There is a stage at which the body releases itself rather than be propped up. Recognize when prolongation becomes its own attachment.
BG 12.24
He should properly place the fire element in his own self and in this way give up bodily affinity, by which one thinks the body to be one’s self or one’s own. One should gradually merge the material body into the five elements [earth, water, fire, air and sky].
Essence. Place the fire element in the self; give up bodily affinity; gradually merge the material body into the five elements. The body is a combination; consciously dissolve the combination. Death is a yoga to be learned.
BG 12.25
A sober, self-realized person who has full knowledge should merge the various parts of the body in their original sources. The holes in the body are caused by the sky, the process of breathing is caused by the air, the heat of the body is caused by fire, and semen, blood and mucus are caused by water. The hard substances, like skin, muscle and bone, are caused by earth. In this way all the constituents of the body are caused by various elements, and they should be merged again into those elements.
Essence. Merge holes into sky, breath into air, heat into fire, semen/blood/mucus into water, hard substances into earth. The body returns piece by piece to its sources. Self-realization knows the original sources of each constituent.
BG 12.26-28
Thereafter, the object of speech, along with the sense of speech [the tongue], should be bestowed upon fire. Craftsmanship and the two hands should be given to the demigod Indra. The power of movement and the legs should be given to Lord Viṣṇu. Sensual pleasure, along with the genitals, should be bestowed upon Prajāpati. The rectum, with the power of evacuation, should be bestowed, in its proper place, unto Mṛtyu. The aural instrument, along with sound vibration, should be given to the deities presiding over the directions. The instrument of touch, along with the sense objects of touch, should be given to Vāyu. Form, with the power of sight, should be bestowed upon the sun. The tongue, along with the demigod Varuṇa, should be bestowed upon water, and the power of smell, along with the two Aśvinī-kumāra demigods, should be bestowed upon the earth.
Essence. Tongue to fire, hands to Indra, legs to Viṣṇu, genitals to Prajāpati, anus to Mṛtyu, ears to direction-deities, touch to Vāyu, sight to sun, taste to Varuṇa, smell to Aśvinīs. Every sense and organ has its source-deity to return to. The body is on loan from many sources.
BG 12.29-30
The mind, along with all material desires, should be merged in the moon demigod. All the subject matters of intelligence, along with the intelligence itself, should be placed in Lord Brahmā. False ego, which is under the influence of the material modes of nature and which induces one to think, “I am this body, and everything connected with this body is mine,” should be merged, along with material activities, in Rudra, the predominating deity of false ego. Material consciousness, along with the goal of thought, should be merged in the individual living being, and the demigods acting under the modes of material nature should be merged, along with the perverted living being, into the Supreme Being. The earth should be merged in water, water in the brightness of the sun, this brightness into the air, the air into the sky, the sky into the false ego, the false ego into the total material energy, the total material energy into the unmanifested ingredients [the pradhāna feature of the material energy], and at last the ingredient feature of material manifestation into the Supersoul.
Essence. Mind to moon, intelligence to Brahmā, false ego (and 'I am this body') to Rudra, consciousness to the individual living being, demigods to the Supreme Being; earth to water, water to fire, fire to air, air to sky, sky to false ego, all into the unmanifested, finally into the Supersoul. A full unwinding.
BG 12.31
When all the material designations have thus merged into their respective material elements, the living beings, who are all ultimately completely spiritual, being one in quality with the Supreme Being, should cease from material existence, as flames cease when the wood in which they are burning is consumed. When the material body is returned to its various material elements, only the spiritual being remains. This spiritual being is Brahman and is equal in quality with Parabrahman.
Essence. When all designations merge back into their elements, the living being — spiritual and one in quality with Parabrahman — ceases from material existence as a flame ceases when its wood is consumed. The spiritual remains; Brahman remains; Parabrahman is unchanged.